The great rejuvenation of China

Section 3: Steadily advancing in the direction of common prosperity for all the people

Since ancient times, human society has pursued and explored common prosperity, but true common prosperity can only be achieved when socialism develops to a certain extent. As a Marxist political party, the Communist Party of China regards leading the people to create a better life and achieve common prosperity as its unswerving goal. As Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “The development we pursue is development that benefits the people, and the prosperity we pursue is the common prosperity of all the people.” Whether reform and development succeed or not, the ultimate criterion is whether the people have jointly enjoyed the fruits of reform and development. “1

1. Common prosperity is the fundamental principle of socialism with Chinese characteristics

The concept of common prosperity can be understood from two dimensions: productivity and production relations. “Common” reflects the way members of society occupy wealth, which is relative to the polarization caused by private ownership, and is a concentrated embodiment of the nature of social production relations; “affluent” reflects the degree of ownership of wealth by members of society, which is relative to poverty and is a concentrated embodiment of the development level of social productive forces. In this sense, common prosperity is a concept that reflects specific productive forces and production relations. The Communist Party of China has always regarded sharing the fruits of development and leading the people to achieve common prosperity as its value goal.

After the founding of New China, Comrade Mao Zedong raised the issue of common prosperity and continued to explore it. “Now that we implement such a system, such a plan, we can become richer and stronger year by year, and we can see richer and stronger year by year.” And this wealth is common wealth, this strength, is common strength, everyone has a share.“1 Since the reform and opening up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping has summed up the lessons of the past, once again emphasized the issue of common prosperity and its way of realization, regarded common prosperity as one of the basic principles of socialism, and summarized common prosperity as the essential connotation of socialism. Comrade Jiang Zemin stressed: “Achieving common prosperity is the fundamental principle and essential characteristic of socialism, and it must not be shaken.“2 Comrade Hu Jintao also demanded: “Let all the people share the fruits of reform and development, and enable all the people to advance steadily in the direction of common prosperity.“3

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. A distinctive feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is that the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country unite and struggle, constantly create a better life, and gradually realize common prosperity for all the people on the basis of production and development. At the new historical starting point, Comrade Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the issue of common prosperity and emphasizes that achieving common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism.

An important aspect that distinguishes socialism from capitalism lies in its profound criticism of capitalist polarization and huge economic and social inequality, emphasizing adherence to the people-centered approach and dedication to the pursuit of all-round human development and common prosperity for all people. In his speech at the celebration of the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized: “Leading the people to create a happy life is the unswerving goal of our party. We must conform to the people’s yearning for a better life, adhere to the people-centered development thinking, focus on ensuring and improving people’s livelihood, develop various social undertakings, increase the intensity of income distribution and regulation, win the battle against poverty, ensure the people’s equal participation and equal development rights, so that the results of reform and development will benefit all the people more equitably, and steadily move towards the goal of achieving common prosperity for all the people. “4

The main contradiction in our society has changed from the contradiction between the people’s growing material and cultural needs and backward social production to the contradiction between the people’s growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development. To adapt to the changes in the main contradictions in society, it is necessary not only to promote high-quality economic development, solve the problem of insufficient development, and further expand the “cake”, but also to coordinate the distribution of income, solve the problem of unbalanced development, and further divide the “cake.” In view of the imbalance in development, especially the widening gap between income and personnel, Comrade Xi Jinping particularly stressed the need to achieve shared development. “The ‘cake’ of China’s economic development continues to expand, but the problem of unfair distribution is more prominent, and the gap between income and the level of public services in urban and rural areas is large. In sharing the achievements of reform and development, there are still imperfections in both the actual situation and the system design. To this end, we must adhere to the principle that development is for the people, development depends on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, and make more effective institutional arrangements so that all the people can steadily advance in the direction of common prosperity. “1 Practice shows that only by earnestly solving the problem of sharing the fruits of reform and achieving common prosperity in shared development can we fully embody the superiority of socialism, effectively enhance the momentum of development, and consolidate and strengthen the mass foundation for the party’s long-term ruling power.

2. Gradually realize common prosperity for all the people

The gradual realization of common prosperity is a systematic project. “Our country is in the primary stage of socialism and will be for a long time, and we cannot do things beyond the stage, but this does not mean that we will do nothing in gradually realizing common prosperity, but we must do as much as possible according to the existing conditions, accumulate small victories into big victories, and constantly advance towards the goal of common prosperity for all the people.” 2 To gradually achieve common prosperity, we must adhere to the principles of sharing by all, comprehensive sharing, joint construction and sharing, and gradual sharing, adhere to doing our best and doing what we can, comprehensively promote the construction of relevant fields, and form a long-term mechanism for sustainable development. Doing our best emphasizes determination and will, that is, how much ability to contribute, and actively create conditions for better results;

Doing what we can and insisting on seeking truth from facts means eating, dressing, and measuring household belongings, without mentioning unrealistic goals, and not doing things that go beyond stages and abilities.

Persist in taking economic construction as the center, further liberate and develop social productive forces, and lay a solid material foundation for achieving common prosperity. Production is the premise and foundation of distribution, and only on the basis of the continuous development of productive forces can common prosperity be truly realized. China is still in the primary stage of socialism and will remain for a long time, it is still the largest developing country in the world, and development is still the top priority of contemporary China and the key to solving all China’s problems.

We must firmly grasp the primary stage of socialism, which is the greatest national condition, firmly base ourselves on the primary stage of socialism, which is the greatest reality, unswervingly persist in taking economic construction as the center, fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the masses, constantly liberate and develop the productive forces, and improve the quality and efficiency of development. Only in this way can we continuously meet the people’s growing needs for a better life in all aspects, continuously improve their living standards, and gradually achieve common prosperity. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out that the realization of social fairness and justice is determined by many factors, the most important of which is the level of economic and social development. We must firmly grasp the center of economic construction, promote sustained and healthy economic development, further expand the ‘cake’, and lay a more solid material foundation for ensuring social fairness and justice. “1 Adhere to the two “unwavering” and consolidate the foundation of the economic system for achieving common prosperity. The basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of various ownership economies is an important pillar of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. Both the public and non-public economies are components of the socialist market economy, an important foundation for China’s economic and social development, and an important condition for achieving common prosperity. In today’s China, we must unswervingly consolidate and develop the public ownership economy and adhere to the status of the main body of public ownership, which plays a fundamental role in enhancing China’s economic strength, safeguarding social fairness and justice, preventing polarization, gradually realizing common prosperity and promoting social harmony. At the same time, we must unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public economy, which is of great significance for promoting economic growth, expanding social employment, increasing fiscal revenue, improving people’s living standards and promoting common prosperity.

Coordinate urban and rural development and regional development, and promote common prosperity between urban and rural areas and common prosperity in all regions. The dual structure of urban and rural areas is an important cause of the gap between the rich and the poor. We must strive to make major breakthroughs in coordinating urban-rural relations, especially in breaking the dual structure of urban and rural areas, promoting the equal exchange of urban and rural factors and the balanced allocation of public resources, implementing the strategy of rural revitalization, injecting new impetus into rural development, and allowing the vast number of farmers to participate in the process of reform and development on an equal footing and enjoy the fruits of reform and development together. Regional development gaps are also an important reason for common prosperity. It is necessary to properly implement the coordinated regional development strategy, establish a more effective new mechanism for coordinated regional development, and promote the gradual realization of common prosperity in the process of continuously improving the income level and quality of life of the people in all regions. Persist in ensuring and improving people’s livelihood in the process of development. It is necessary to seek more benefits for the people’s livelihood and relieve more worries about the people’s livelihood, continuously make new progress in providing education for the young, learning and teaching, earning income from hard work, treating the sick, providing care for the elderly, housing and housing, and supporting the weak, so as to make up for the shortcomings of the people’s livelihood in the process of development, so that the people’s sense of gain, happiness and security will be more fulfilling, more secure and more sustainable. To achieve common prosperity, we must focus on narrowing the income gap, which is a key task in the field of people’s livelihood. It is necessary to adhere to the principle of distribution according to work and improve the system and mechanism for distribution according to key factors; expand the group of middle-income people, increase the income of low-income earners, regulate those with excessive income, and ban illegal income; persist in achieving simultaneous growth of residents’ income while economic growth, and achieve simultaneous increase in labor remuneration while increasing labor productivity; and broaden the channels for residents’ labor income and property income.